Leo Schofield granted parole
Yesterday, Leo Schofield was granted parole after serving over 35 years in prison on a life sentence for murdering his wife in 1987.
Yesterday, Leo Schofield was granted parole after serving over 35 years in prison on a life sentence for murdering his wife in 1987. He will be released from prison on April 30.
According to information in a 20/20 episode, Schofield met his trial defense attorney for the first time the night before trial. At trial, Schofield’s defense was that someone else—specifically, the person who left unidentified fingerprints at the crime scene—was the true perpetrator. After the jury convicted Schofield, he was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years. The prosecution sought the death penalty, but the jury recommended a life sentence.
NOTE: Today, those who are convicted of first-degree murder in Florida and sentenced to life in prison are not eligible for parole. Schofield was convicted before the rule changed, when Florida allowed for parole after 25 years.
While the fingerprints were taken from the crime scene in 1987, they were not tested until 2004. At that time, the fingerprints were matched to another man named Jeremy Scott, who was serving a life sentence in Florida prison for another murder. In 2009, Schofield sought relief based on the fingerprints being matched to Scott. The trial court denied relief, and the Florida Second District Court of Appeal ultimately affirmed the denial after first remanding for an evidentiary hearing.1
Later, Scott confessed to the murder on several occasions. In 2017, Schofield filed another postconviction motion seeking relief based on Scott’s confessions. Both the postconviction court and the Second District denied Schofield’s request for a new trial, determining that Scott’s confessions were “entirely incredible and unreliable.”2 (For more information on Scott’s testimony at the evidentiary hearing related to Schofield’s claim, see this article by the Tampa Bay Times.)
In May 2023, the parole board denied Schofield’s request for parole. It was his fourth unsuccessful attempt at parole. However, according to reporting by the Tampa Bay Times, the board “voted to transfer Schofield to a prison near Miami that hosts a lifer’s program, designed to prepare prisoners under life sentences for reentry into society.” He returned for yesterday’s hearing after completing that program.
Despite yesterday’s outcome, Schofield’s attorneys said they will continue working to obtain an exoneration.
Schofield’s case has garnered international attention, primarily due to the work of Pulitzer Prize-winner Gilbert King’s work. For more on Schofield’s case, see Gilbert King’s Bone Valley podcast. There is also a 20/20 episode about Schofield’s case, available here.
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Since being in prison, Schofield has gotten remarried. He and his wife also adopted a child through an open adoption. He also has a grandson.
While this case is not necessarily directly related to the death penalty, it felt sufficiently connected to the topics of this blog to warrant a post. Thanks for reading.
Schofield v. State, 67 So. 3d 1066 (Fla. 2d DCA 2011); see also Schofield v. State, 32 So. 3d 90 (Fla. 2d DCA 2009).
Schofield v. State, 311 So. 3d 918 (Fla. 2d DCA 2020).